When I was at Sony's press conference at E3 last year, the announcement of Echochrome was easily a highlight for me. I love games that try something radically different, that aim to provide a new way to think about games. Being a fan of M.C. Escher probably had something to do with it to.

I'm actually glad they went with the digital distribution on this one, I think it would've been a strain on the developers to try and pack a bunch of extra junk playmodes and stuff in there to justify a retail price tag. That's the great thing about DLC, you can make the game you want and sell it for whatever you like. Anyways, Sony has seen fit to release a PS3 and PSP version of Echochrome... and while both are different in puzzles offered, I seriously doubt you'll find yourself needing both versions. I went with the PSP version because for me a game like this is better on the move than at home in 1080p.

The developers definitely throw you into the deep end right at the beginning. They show you a little movie about the "rules" of the universe and then blammo! your in the mix. The puzzles actually start off pretty hard too (Though I guess that's a personal call, it may just be that I'm an idiot). I found the whole thing a tad disconcerting, kinda wishing there was a gentler learning curve to get me used to the mindset I'd have to shift into while playing the game. You really have a limited control of the environment, with only the ability to twist and turn the playfield itself to change the dynamic. You can also stop the little guy from moving if need be.

Of course after some time with the title everything's smooth as silk now. Of course the puzzles are still difficult as hell, but the logic kind of snaps into place. That being said, the game has a bit of a flaw in that since you're encouraging people to think outside the box so to speak, it's hard to anticipate their actions and program accordingly. I ran into numerous instances where I was trying to vault my little character from one ledge to another and while it looked perfectly logical to me the game seemed to disagree. It actually reminded me of the very old-school text adventure games where you'd have to take into consideration how the programmers needed you complete the task, and not just how you'd complete it. For instance, you may need to walk through a door but the no matter how many times you type "Open Door" the game just doesn't understand what you're trying to tell it to do. You had to try all kinds of various combinations of verbs and adjectives trying to find the one the developers thought was the most obvious.

This didn't happen often in the game, but it was frustrating when it did. The whole game really hinges on this idea of perception, so when that breaks down (even a bit) it's jarring. Luckily it was the exception rather than the rule.

I also ran into a really interesting internal debate with myself while playing it about what my motivation was as a player to keep beating puzzles. Normally, since I'm controlling the character on screen I want to complete objectives or win the game because it's "me" playing through the scenario. Or in a "god" game I'm controlling these characters on screen but want to win or complete whatever I'm doing so my army or followers or whatever are victorious. In Echochrome, not only is the character on screen implicitly NOT me, he's not a real person at all but rather looks like one of those poseable models that artists use. So when I failed a puzzle I felt no sense of failure. I had no vested personal interest whether or not this wireframe "guy" survived the puzzle or not.

It's the total opposite of a game like Intelligent Qube or PQ Practical Intelligence Quotient. Now I know what you're gonna say, what about games like Tetris or others like it. Well, I would argue that it's a different set of motivators since there's no on-screen "characters" at all to transpose yourself onto. I agree that I'm sure a lengthy discussion could be had about the above 2 paragraphs, but I found it interesting that I was thinking about it while I was playing the game.

At $9.99 it's hard to beat, especially if you dig the puzzle games. It seemed perfect for on the go playing and I'm not sure I would've enjoyed it as much if I were playing it on the big TV at home. In addition to all of that, we're also getting user-created levels to download as well!

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